By Lauri Gavel
Andrew M. Kaufman, a professor at Vanderbilt University Law School and formerly a senior transactional partner and now "of counsel" in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, has been appointed executive director of the Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law.
The Lowell Milken Institute was established in 2011 by a $10 million gift from UCLA Law's 2009 Public Service Alumnus of the Year, Lowell Milken '73, a leading philanthropist and pioneer in education reform.
"We are delighted to welcome Andy Kaufman to UCLA School of Law," said UCLA Law dean Rachel F. Moran. "His real-world experience in practice and his teaching experience in transactional law make him an ideal choice to serve as founding executive director of the Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law and Policy."
Professor Eric M. Zolt, faculty director of the Lowell Milken Institute, added, "We are excited about the opportunity to work with Andy to make an already excellent business law and policy program even better."
The Lowell Milken Institute influences the field of business law and policy through innovative research, targeted policy analysis and sophisticated training that prepares UCLA School of Law students to become leaders in an entrepreneurial economy.
Kaufman, founder and former head of Kirkland & Ellis' debt finance group, received his bachelor's degree (cum laude) from Yale University in 1971 and his law degree from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1974, where he was editor-in-chief of the Vanderbilt Law Review and was elected to Order of the Coif.
He is presently a member of the TriBar Opinion Committee, a well-respected non-partisan panel addressing legal opinions in transactional practice, and serves as program chair for the national Working Group on Legal Opinions. He is also a member of the Uniform Commercial Code Committee, the Commercial Financial Services Committee, the Legal Opinions Committee and the Audit Responses Committee for the American Bar Association Section of Business Law.
Kaufman lectures and writes frequently on financing, commercial law and legal-opinion issues at national professional seminars and programs and in related publications. Since 2009, he has been a professor of the practice of law in the law and business program at Vanderbilt University Law School, teaching courses on secured transactions, transactional practice, leveraged buyouts and syndicated loan transactions in commercial lending. At Vanderbilt, he also serves on the dean's board of advisors.
Kaufman is admitted to practice in Illinois, Texas and Georgia. He and his wife, Michele, will be relocating to Los Angeles later this spring.
UCLA School of Law, founded in 1949, is the youngest major law school in the nation and has established a tradition of innovation in its approach to teaching, research and scholarship. With approximately 100 faculty and 1,100 students, the school pioneered clinical teaching, is a leader in interdisciplinary research and training, and is at the forefront of efforts to link research to its effects on society and the legal profession.
Source: University of California--Los Angeles
